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a very very merry

This morning, I’m getting ready for a Christmas cookie-decorating date with two of my favorite little munchkins. Being a person who prefers “Favorite Aunt” status to “Mom” status, I can tell you there are few things I enjoy more than borrowing my friends’ children for a few hours, loading them up with sugar and sparkly shoes, then sending them home to crash and burn on my friends’ time.

Before I tie on my apron and bust out my 15 varieties of red and green sprinkles (Favorite Aunt status has to be earned, friends), I wanted to officially “clock out” for the season. There’s something so mentally freeing about this last post I do at the end of each year. It lets me know I can finally stop worrying, stop constantly scouting the world around me for “perfect” gift ideas, and trust that I’ve already given you the very best I have to offer up this holiday season.

It also forces me to take a few moments to reflect on the year. I’ve been feeling an almost Herculean “less is more” pull all year, but this holiday season it’s really come to the forefront. All that hustle and bustle, mall parking and express shipping…it is just so completely not what the holidays are about. But of course, it’s a necessary evil. A means to an end. I get it. I don’t love it, but I get it.

My wish for you this holiday is that you find a moment just for yourself. Just one – somewhere amid the madness of family and friends and baking and gift wrapping and shipping and decorating. To sit quietly with a mug of tea or a glass of wine, to look around, and to enjoy some of that beauty the holiday season brings. It may be buried under the piles of tangled ribbon, catalogs and ornament storage boxes, but I promise you, it’s there.

Before I go, friends, I want to give you a big bear hug from the bottom of my heart. Yes, you. For showing up. For leaving comments (or not). For clicking those annoying affiliate links and ads so I can actually afford the fees to keep this site running. For following me on social media (I lost a big ol’ pile of followers in the Great Spam Purge over at Instagram this month, and though I know it makes me a shallow human being, I have to confess: it broke my heart a little. So, if you feel like getting me a gift, click “follow“, will you?). And for just being your wonderful, irreverent, funny, clever, doing-your-best-to-make-it-each-day self. You have no idea how much it means to me to know we’re in this together.

And if you really find yourself getting lost, as we all do at least once before Christmas, re-read this. It’s always good for rekindling a dying Christmas spirit. (As is a swig of highly-sauced eggnog, but it’s less socially acceptable before breakfast.)

Wishing you a holiday filled with beauty, friendly faces and love,Becki

(PS – If you want to know when I’m back from my holiday hideout, Bloglovin’ or Feedly or something is a good option. Or, you know, refresh the page 10 times a day in anxious anticipation. Either way.)